Posts

you could probably make a fairly convincing argument that the world doesn't really need atrium carceri. after all, their label, sweden's cold meat industry, started off the "death industrial" thing almost twenty years ago by marrying the aesthetics of extreme metal with the sonic influence of early laibach. despite the label's subsequent shifts in focus, many of their seminal releases are still available, so it's questionable whether a sort of throwback to the classic cmi sound could be called a necessity.

but need is a strong word. after all, i don't need ice cream, nice wine, mac computers or john fluevog shoes, but i still enjoy them.

kapnobatai, the third album from atrium carceri, shows its influences loud and proud. above all, the one which stands out to me is the more atonal work by raison d'etre, with elements of sirkle zero-era sleep chamber and grand guignol-period schloss tegal also evident. the ease with which i can link this album to …

ah, the mortal enemy of diets: travel. having recently returned from a few days in my favourite city ever to be cast in jello (san francisco, if you're wondering), i am having to readjust my eating regimen after gleefully stuffing my face with more food than my body has been accustomed to for the last month or so. it is really, really difficult to find restaurants with small portions anywhere in the united states of america.

on the other hand, i did compensate for this indulgence by kicking myself a few rungs up the metabolic ladder. san francisco is one of north america's great walking cities. compact in geography, it compensates for its small area in vertical scale. strolling the city is the urban equivalent of mountain climbing, complete with breathtaking scenery of both the natural and constructed varieties. so after six or seven hours of hitting the pavement, i figure i can afford to consume a few more calories.

over the years, i’ve learned that it is a mistake for me to judge current 93 releases when i first get them. i find that it takes me a number of listens just to get my head around the release, so deciding where it falls in my spectrum of c93 releases. so i actually picked this album up a few months ago, but am only now at the point where i feel like i can give it a proper review.

and that still doesn’t mean i can say whether or not i like it.

like much of the band’s later work, it is inspired by the dreams of david tibet, the musical and spiritual centre of the band. increasingly, i don’t think anyone, even tibet himself, is precisely sure of the meaning of what he’s writing, but that may be beside the point. whatever it is he is struggling to communicate, i don’t doubt that tibet feels its meaning and his fragmentary poetry is meant to convey that feeling rather than a narractive logic. that sort of thing is either going to grip you right away or leave you feeling alienated. wheth…

for me, there will always be something fascinating about radio. it's not just that i used to beinvolved. the fascination goes back to when i was very young. no matter what was going on in my life, the radio always seemed to be there, making the soundtrack. my childhood is punctuated by the sounds of the cbc. i believe i can repeat, almost verbatim, the cbc news introduction from the day after the 1980 sovreignty referendum in quebec. when i hit my teens, the chief use i had for my walkman was burying myself under the covers when i was supposed to be asleep and listening to shows like brave new waves, or broadcasts of british shows, where the music seemed much more interesting than what was available locally (it was).

always, what fascinated me was the idea that i was hearing someone i didn't know and couldn't picture off there in the distance, someone with whom i shared an interest in music. somewhere out there was someone, opaque to me, who was unaware of the fact that t…

ah, the long haul wherein it becomes very difficult to see progress... i guess since i had started to see results relatively quickly, i got a little spoiled. now that i can't see anything happening, i'm getting a little frustrated.

equally frustrating is that i'm able to see where the weight has come off and it all seems to come from weird areas. well, some are weird at least. i can see a little difference in my thighs and backside, which are areas women are supposed to care about, but which have always been the areas that have been the last to gain and the first to lose on me. (actually, i've always taken it as a sign that i need to start dieting when i see my thighs get bigger, since that means i've grown everywhere else.)

there's no sign whatsoever of a reduction in size of the tire on my gut, which is what i'm trying to achieve, but i'm trying to gain patience by remembering that this is probably the last area to experience weight loss.

... and i can't think of a more creative or clever way to express that.

i came down with a case of the flu over the weekend (because nothing says "holiday weekend" like a good flu) and am still laid low. i made a rather foolish attempt to work today, which was probably amusing for some of my coworkers as they watched me wobble around like a drunkard because i was weak, in pain and hadn't eaten a proper meal in a couple of days.

this is a particularly interesting flu, as well, because it didn't come with congestion, with nausea, or with any of the symtpoms one would normally associate with a flu. the main hallmark of this flu is that EVERYTHING HURTS. i feel like i was doing a workout for about a day and a half. muscles i hadn't met before are screaming at me. my head hurts, my neck and back, my legs... my skin hurts, which meant that i spent the part of the day desperately dodging any type of physical contact with anything. (ever seen someone trying to avoid…